I attended an event that featured Lawrence Levy, the gentleman who helped Steve Jobs make Pixar a billion dollar household name. Mr. Levy was there to tell us how he ended up at Pixar (Steve Jobs called him), what he found when he got there (a weird money losing mess with lots of upside potential) and how he turned Pixar into an animation powerhouse (by focusing on their USP and their unfair disadvantage).  

Here are the key points that he made that evening. While I learned most of them years ago (and credited my mentors below each lesson), I’ve recapped them here because these lessons pay dividends throughout your business life – and maybe beyond that one as well.

Passion is not a substitute for knowledge.

• Roger Gallerini, V.P. BBDO, Detroit.

Don’t hire people who are like you.

• Judith Elder, V.P. Ogilvy + Mather, Toronto.

Step back and assess things before you act.

• Howard Breen, CEO, MacLaren McCann (U.S.).       

It’s more import to get to the right answer than to be right.

• Hugh Dow, V.P. Media Operations, MacLaren Canada.

Giving the create team control is scary.

• Every single account director that I’ve met in my career. 

Be open-minded and nonjudgmental.

• Julia Wehrmann, my mother.

Remain open to what comes your way.

• Julia Wehrmann, my mother + Charlie Convey, my poodle-man + creative muse.

People need to want to change (their own stress levels). You can show them a new way but you can’t force the new way upon them. 

• Psychology 101 at Ryerson and Dr. Richard Bandler, NLP Founder.

My good friend Helga Marie Wälzer Peroutka was born on April 4, 1921 and died on July 1, 2018.

In 1938, when Helga was seventeen, she was engaged to Karl Luchs (born 13.o4.1920) with her parent’s unconditional blessing. But because he was born “of mixed race”, the Nazi army sent him to Terezin in 1941. On May 13, 1943 Karl Luchs was sent to Auschwitz Birkenau and died there on June 9, 1943. 

Helga met Frank Peroutka after the Second World War in Czechoslovakia and married him there in 1948. They fled their homeland in 1949, arrived in Halifax in 1951 and became Canadian citizens in 1956.

Helga and Frank had a wonderful life in Toronto where their home overlooked the Scarborough Bluffs and was just a short walk from the public tennis courts. She and Frank played tennis into their eighties and travelled extensively for business and pleasure.

When Frank passed away on May 1, 2009, Helga said that "he took all the fun in life with him."

In February 2010, when Helga was 89, her friend, Heinz Haischt, brought her Toby, a little red miniature poodle puppy to care for. Helga and her Tobitsky quickly became inseparable and Toby helped to pull Helga through her last years, her last months and her last days.

Helga bore her burdens and her years with grace, dignity and without complaint. She was kind, considerate and generous to those she liked, respected or loved. Her childhood was magical, the war years horrible, the post-war recovery arduous and her 61 years with Frank, bliss. 

On Helga's behalf, we thank all of the support staff at Amica Bayview Gardens who went out of their way to make Helga's last few years a very dignified journey. 

A Celebration of Life and Interment will be held at Mount Pleasant Funeral Centre, Toronto on Tue., July 24 at 2:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a charitable donation in memory of Helga to the SPCA, The Toronto Humane Society or the animal support agency of your choice.

For years I’ve argued that brand continuity is important, and for years franchisees have told me it isn’t. Here are two recent examples that illustrate why brand continuity matters.

Example #1 :: Sobeys

I lived in Winnipeg for two years and shopped at Sobeys because 1. I could walk there, 2. it was a clean bright store,  3. my father-in-law recommended it, and 4. it also had a pharmacy. I came to look forward to my frequent small shopping trips. Better yet they had a number of products that I came to love. I’m not a foodie, but Sobeys did it’s best to make me one. So now I’m back in Toronto – missing my local Sobeys and some of those special treats. I drove to the nearest one, only to find it small, dingy, unfriendly and worst of all – the treats I loves to buy in Winnipeg were nowhere to be found in the Toronto store.  The result: i will not go back to Sobey’s in Toronto and I’ll share my brand disappointment with others.

Example #2 :: Days Inn

Charlie (my dog) and I used to drive to Winnipeg and back a few times a year. When my wife came along we made it a road-vacation. we set a leisurely pace and overnighted 4-5 times enroute. Over the years and miles we’ve found that some hotels and motels had no-dog policies, others charged as much as a 2nd (or 3rd) human occupant, and others put you up in their ‘smoking’ rooms. Then there was Days Inn. So far no matter what route we have taken from Toronto to Winnipeg and back, Days Inn was always happy to put up Michelle, Charlie and me for a $10-$20.00 premium in a non-smoking room. Given the rooms are large, comfortable and equipped with wireless internet and a desk, they’ll continue to get my business and my referrals.

As Holiday Inn used to say in their ads: “The best surprise is no surprise”.

Julia Franziska Bendzko Wehrmann

March 25, 1921 - February 19, 2018

My mother Julia passed away peacefully on February 19, 2018. She is survived by five of her children: Petra, August, Martin, Barbara and Frank and their spouses, extended families, friends and neighbours.

Julia was predeceased by her husband Heinrich, her partner for 64 years and by her son Henry.

Julia was born and raised in Halle, Germany. During the war she worked for the red cross as a nurse and in a military garrison's children's day care center.

The family emigrated from Bremerhaven, Germany on November 28, 1954 and immigrated to Quebec City, Qc. Canada on December 10, 1954. Their first home in Canada was an apartment at 221 Agusta Ave., in Toronto’s Kensington Market District. From there the family moved to 18 Garden Ave. in 1956, and then to 66 Pine Crest Rd. in the High Park District in 1963. 

When she was able, not busy raising six children, Julia was a proficient and talented multi-media artist. Oil, Acrylic, Water Colour, and enamel work inspired her - as did the classics; ballet, opera and literature.  

 A celebration of Julia's life will take place on Sunday, March 25th at Glen Oaks Funeral Home, Oakville at 2:00 p.m.

Donations may be made to War Child Canada or to a children's charity of your choice.

Julia is fondly remembered by all who knew her.

She now rests peacefully with her God.

Long before I became an Account Director and a Creative Director, I was a Media Estimator, Buyer, Planner, Manager and finally a Media Director.

Being a Creative Director is fun because I’m the one responsible for coming up with the “big idea” that the client’s advertising campaign is built around.

Being an Account Director was also a lot of fun because the Account Director is really the one who drives the client conversation and is the one that determines if the client’s campaign is going to be very innovative, repetitive + boring, serious, insightful, wicked, funny, effective or benign.

But being a Media Director was the most challenging role and in hindsight the most interesting line of work. The Media Director determines where the stories will be told. Great media planning, buying + deployment are an amazing process of research driven information orchestrations.

Great media plans put great creative in a position to sell. (A great story at the right time + place presented to the right audience.)

A great media plan + poor creative works, but not as well. (An O.K. story at the right time + place presented to the right audience.)

A bad media plan + great creative is a waste of time + money. (A great story that the right target group never gets to see or hear.)

This, my friends is the 2016 / 2017 edition of the CMDC Digest.

It’s an executive summary of the kind of data today’s Media Directors use to assemble smart, insightful + effective media plans and recommendations.

• It’s an amazing assembly of facts and figures.
• It’s all about Canada (not the U.S.)
• It’s available for free at cmcd.ca
• And a quick search will turn up guides from previous years.

Enjoy!